Congress Is About to Ban the Government From Offering Free Online Tax Filing. Thank TurboTax.
Just in time for Tax Day, the for-profit tax preparation industry is about to realize one of its long-sought goals. Congressional Democrats and Republicans are moving to permanently bar the IRS from creating a free electronic tax filing system.
Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., passed the Taxpayer First Act, a wide-ranging bill making several administrative changes to the IRS that is sponsored by Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa.
In one of its provisions, the bill makes it illegal for the IRS to create its own online system of tax filing. Companies like Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and H&R Block have lobbied for years to block the IRS from creating such a system. If the tax agency created its own program, which would be similar to programs other developed countries have, it would threaten the industrys profits.
This could be a disaster. It could be the final nail in the coffin of the idea of the IRS ever being able to create its own program, said Mandi Matlock, a tax attorney who does work for the National Consumer Law Center.
Experts have long argued that the IRS has failed to make filing taxes as easy and cheap as it could be. In addition to a free system of online tax preparation and filing, the agency could provide people with pre-filled tax forms containing the salary data the agency already has, as ProPublica first reported on in 2013.
https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2019/04/congress-about-ban-government-offering-free-online-tax-filing-thank-turbotax/156175/
Power 2 the People
(2,437 posts)Never seems to go the other way.
intheozone
(1,103 posts)back to filing paper returns. See how the IRS and software companies like that alternative
exboyfil
(17,863 posts)I suspect the next step is elimination of paper returns (which is what I do currently).
Bow to our corporate overlords.
we can do it
(12,189 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,133 posts)ways to do one's taxes. I'm surprised that they got away with the 2017 tax cut and jobs bill, where they
reduced doing taxes to literally a post card (that the accounting/tax prep companies allowed).
More than likely, they couldn't get to rump fast enough to pay him off so they could retain the near monopoly in doing everyday American's taxes and the donors wanted their tax cuts asap.
The Mouth
(3,150 posts)Hello, John Lewis and Richard Neal- Wake the Fuck up!